It must be something about the holiday season that makes bloggers’ thoughts turn to the work/life balance or lack thereof. Here are some excellent posts from around the blogosphere:
- Jill Sommer’s post ‘Tis the season for no work/life balance points out what many of us are experiencing: clients who have tons of work for us at the end of the year. I have vowed not to complain about having too much work until the unemployment rate falls back to a reasonable number, but I agree with Jill. Especially if you have clients in countries where the holiday vacation season lasts from about December 15 until January 6, it’s a very busy time to be a freelancer!
- Penelope Trunk, one of my favorite non-translation bloggers, has a great post entitled Maybe no moms are working moms, focusing specifically on the work/life balance issues that moms face. Much of this post rings true for me; I think that many of the moms at my daughter’s school think that because I come in to frost gingerbread houses and shelve library books, I’m a stay-at-home-mom. However, I do think that some of the issue is location-dependent. Here in Boulder where the cafés are full at all hours of the work day and signs in store windows read “Mondays and powder days: closed,” working 30 hours a week from home as a freelancer is definitely considered “having a job.” This post made me realize that because I live in a community where I have a lot of freelancing mom friends, I don’t really identify with the “scared, lost and lonely” stereotype in Penelope’s post. So here’s one solution to the work/life dilemma: move to a town where people don’t work that much!
- Over at Get Rich Slowly, J.D. Roth posted In Praise of Work-Life Balance, discussing his current situation and the freedom that it affords him. One key tip here: once you hit the sweet spot of work/life balance, resist the urge to add more commitments. J.D. describes his decision to indefinitely delay a planned project because he can’t add another task to his list right now. In the past, I’ve implemented a similar strategy and declined all new (non-paying) requests for my time for two weeks, or a month, or however long I need to feel sane!
Feel free to add your own work/life tips, and have a great holiday season!
I was very interested in your comment on Penelope Trunks post. I also live in a ski town, where we are constantly amazed how many can “play” every day, i.e. go skiing, biking, hiking and such. The solution must be that a lot of us are “freelancers”. For the few “regular employees” there is always the “Park City flu” that seems to hit during powder days here, when the amount of sick-days increase.
Being a freelancer is sure an advantage during the holiday season, since we do not have to deal with commuting, meetings etc. and can choose when we work and when we prepare for the holidays. For time saving tips for the holidays, see my answer to Jill Sommers blog post about “tis the season for no work/life balance.
I have been thinking about work-life balance a lot recently. I live in a very expensive part of the US (Boston area). Our daycare expenses for 2 toddlers are astronomical for 5 days a week. I have had a gym membership since October that I haven’t been able to even use.
On the other hand, my business is booming, which allows me to feel a bit better about the hours. Next year I can afford to go to that gym, I hope!
Tapani
Thanks Tapani! Yes, I don’t want to see your day care bill for 2 toddlers, yikes!! I do think that the work/life balance is a lot more difficult (unbalanced?) when you have small kids. As you pointed out, something has to give and it’s not always easy to accept that you simply cannot do it all and stay remotely sane. I find that it really helps to block non-work time into my schedule just like I block out work time. Also I have to do some things at unappealing times of the day (6 AM yoga?) in order to fit them in. Let us know how it goes with the gym in 2011 🙂